Draghi sent the euro up a bit by noting diminished downside risks, but the shared currency later pulled back as he continued to emphasize uncertainty about the inflation outlook.

All in all, it was as advertised, with Draghi avoiding making any major pronouncements and studiously avoiding getting drawn into the French presidential election race. Things might get more interesting when ECB policy makers reconvene in June.

9:22 am | The tilt | by William Watts

Draghi is asked what he thinks the headline is from the policy meeting. He emphasizes that economic risks remain tilted to the downside.

9:20 am | Policy, not politics | by William Watts

A reporter for French news agency AFP takes another crack at getting Draghi to talk about how policy makers assess risks stemming from the French presidential election.

"We discuss policy, not politics," Draghi says, rather curtly.

9:08 am | Protectionism fears fading? | by William Watts

Draghi says the risk of trade protectionism may be receding.

9:04 am | Fragilities remain | by William Watts

Draghi says there are still many "fragilities" to worry about, including bad loans in the banking sector.

It jumped to an intraday high of $1.0934 after Draghi provided some upbeat comments on the economic recovery, but it only took some downbeat inflation comments to send the shared currency lower again.

The euro is now buying $1.0887, down from $1.0906 on Wednesday. The pullback came after the ECB president said there was no change to the inflation outlook and that inflation is not strong enough to warrant monetary tightening.

8:59 am | Still lacking confidence in inflation outlook | by William Watts

Draghi continues to emphasize uncertainty about the inflation outlook, saying the ECB isn't sufficiently confident that inflation will converge toward the goal in a self-sustaining manner.

The shared currency is buying $1.0931, up from as low as $1.0872 earlier in the day and $1.0906 late Wednesday in New York.

The rally for the euro came after Draghi said risks to the eurozone has diminished, while the economic recovery is becoming “increasingly solid”.

8:43 am

Draghi makes his obligatory plea for policy makers and politicians to make reforms necessary to boost productivity and for a "growth-friendly" mix of fiscal policy.

8:37 am | Downside risks diminished | by William Watts

Draghi is delivering his opening statement.

He says incoming data shows the cyclical recovery is increasingly solid and that downside risks have “diminished.” He adds, however, that a substantial amount of monetary stimulus remains necessary and that the ECB is ready to increase asset purchases is conditions suddenly deteriorate.

Those economic risks, by the way, are still skewed to the downside, he says.

8:25 am | Will ECB change the order? | by William Watts

As noted, the ECB statement accompanying the policy decision reiterated that the central bank plans to keep rates at "present or lower levels" for an extended period and long past the time it ends quantitative easing. But there's been a lot of speculation over whether the ECB could actually start to nudge rates higher before it ends its bond-buying program.

It's likely Draghi will get quizzed on the "sequencing" of the policy exit during the news conference. Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said, in a note, that he thinks the ECB will eventually grant itself the flexibility to nudge up the deposit rate paid on deposits parked overnight at the central bank--a rate that stands at minus 0.4%--before its asset-buing program has ended, but that probably won't come until June.

Investors will also be looking for any changes to the bank's assessment of economic risks. But the ECB chief's opening statement is likely to largely be a copy of his March comments, Vistesen said. "In short, we don't expect a whole lot of new information from the ECB today," he wrote.

8:15 am | Downside risks | by William Watts

Mario Draghi previously emphasized downside risks as a reason not to start talking about easing back its aggressive bond-buying program. MarketWatch's Sara Sjolin runs them down right here.

One of those risks--political turmoil as a result of France's presidential election--appears to have subsided but not yet disappeared with polls showing centrist Emmanuel Macron likely to defeat anti-euro politician Marine Le Pen when they meet in a May 7 runoff.

It's a good bet Draghi will refrain from saying anything provocative about the contest.

As Sjolin writes, however, the policy debate is likely to get downright fierce come June, with hawks pushing to flag a readiness to start pulling in on extraordinary stimulus mesures.

8:09 am | Taper, moi? | by William Watts

There were no significant changes to the ECB's statement following its widely expected decision to leave rates unchnaged. If anything, the decision to maintain the same "forward guidance" language its used in the past could be interpreted as a bit more dovish than at least some prognosticators had expected given solid recent economic data, said Jack Allen, European economist at Capital Economics, in a note.

The statement sets the stage for what's likely to be a button-down Draghi performance. Allen writes:

In the opening statement he will probably highlight the weakness of core inflation, and again state that risks to the outlook remain skewed to the downside (although he might concede that downside risks are smaller than they were in March). And we expect him to repeat that the Governing Council has still not discussed tapering. That said, we suspect that in June the Bank will drop its reference to lower interest rates, and see it ultimately tapering asset purchases in the first half of next year.

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